Best Home Theater Systems for Christmas 2009.

For Christmas 2009, the hottest new home theater systems have smaller speakers, smaller receivers and wireless data transfer.  With the now proven and accepted emergence of the speaker bar, the one, long speaker that provides surround sound better than most home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) systems, there is really no need for 6 or 8 speakers (Dolby Digital 5.1 and 7.1, respectively) anymore. 

For smaller rooms, with ceilings under 8 feet high and neighbours living below, aside, and/or above you, then there really is no need for a Polk or Harmon Kardon system.  But then again, they sure do perform well.  You may never put your volume over 20%, but the sound quality, and the true surround sound experience will blow you away.  Harmon Kardon and Onkyo have home theater sound systems that are in the $1500 and up range, and will provide you with a true surround sound experience.

Buying cheaper HTIBs will provide you with a near-true surround sound experience, but the entire home theater sound system will be only as good as it's weakest link.  If you must buy an HTIB, the replace the supplied wires with a higher grade audio wire, at least 18 to 24 gauge.  Or, if your room is rather small, having wireless speakers will enable you to place your speakers anywhere in your room, even on the walls or ceiling, with no wires ruining the clean look of your room.  Wireless speaker technology can be found on most higher-end home theater systems (HTS).

With a higher-end HTS, the HTIB seems like AM radio did compared to the "super sounds" of "high-fidelity FM radio", as the advertisements from the 1970's educated us about the advantages of FM radio.  Now, the race is on to make television viewing as realistic as possible, but consumers must remember that their HTS  is only as good as its weakest part.  Buying a $3,500 surround sound home theater system, and using the cheapest wire on the store shelves will make the HTS sound nowhere near it's true sound reproduction capabilities.

Yamaha, Samsung, Panasonic, JVC, Sharp, LG and Sony provide the home theatre junkies with quality sound systems at affordable prices.  Most manufacturers have surround sound systems that range from the cheap HTIBs to truer to life HTSs, with the old adage of "you get what you pay for" never being truer.  Staying away from the HTIBs and looking at HTSs will provide you with a much truer sound reproduction.  Having the car sound like it is racing through your living room, from left to right instead of throughout the room makes the home theater experience much more realistic.  Staying away from cheaper HTIBs and spending at least $1500 on a home theater system will provide you with years of a true surround sound experience.

The two main factors in deciding which HTS or HTIB that you purchase would be the price and the sound quality.  When the price is low and the sound quality high, like it can be in the higher-priced HTIBs, (over $750) or the lower-priced HTSs (between $1,000 and $5,000), the only thing that needs to be upgraded is the wires that connect the system, and the speaker wires.  Manufacturers make money by including cheap wires and cables with sound systems, especially HTIBs, so if you do purchase an HTIB, then you should also purchase higher-end speaker wires (if speaker wires are required for the system) and connection cables, like HDMI and optical cables.

There are way too many home theater systems on the market to pick one or two as the best option for your price range.  The best option when entering the home theater system market would be to buy a system in your price range that seems to suit your room's size, and then if it does not perform as well as you had hoped, exchange it at the store you purchased it at for a different model.  The store will not mind, as that is why they have exchange policies, but just make sure that you can exchange your home theatre system for another, if you are not satisfied with the one that you purchased, for another in the same price range.

Talk to the sales people in the store before picking up an HTIB, or even an HTS, as they are aware of each system's sound reproduction qualities.  Explain the size of the room where your television is located, your price range, and the quality of the sound reproduction that you want.  They will be able to point you towards the systems that they carry that would fit your requirements best.

If you do comparison shopping at three or four stereo stores, and a couple of big-box stores like Best Buy, Future Shop and The Source by Circuit City, you should find the perfect home theater sound system for your specific requirements for Christmas 2009.  And, don't forget to look on-line for special deals, but only after you have seen and heard the sound systems in a store first (or at someone else's home who has a decent system).  Buying a sound system on-line, even from a reputable store, could see you giving a sub-par sound system as a Christmas gift, when you really wanted to impress.

Don't forget to save all receipts, just in case, and have a great Christmas in 2009!